Toward a Humanistic Future: Sixty Years of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology

Dear Journal of Humanistic Psychology (JHP) readers,

Happy New Year! As we welcome 2021, we are bidding farewell to an extraordinarily difficult year. In 2020, the world was upended by a global pandemic, which changed our collective ways of being in the world as a human society. As city after city, town after town went on lockdown, our institutions and social practices were radically transformed—some of them disappearing entirely. At the same time, the pandemic intensified and highlighted chronic and devastating disparities that have existed all along—namely poverty, racism, and violence.

Humanistic psychology is uniquely positioned to help better understand and attend to these world changes. As a tradition, humanistic psychology has been a beacon of light in the field, a stronghold for explorations of human meaning, authenticity, person-centered approaches, progressive thought, and social justice. With our focus on the whole person and human relationships, humanistic psychologists emphasize the value and dignity of each and every life. We have systematic ways of studying and learning about lived experience—including the lived experience of sociopolitical uncertainty and unprecedented situations such as the pandemic. We have also consistently emphasized an aspect of existence that the pandemic has served to highlight—that across the planet, our lives and destinies are interconnected, and that taking care of others and taking care of ourselves are by definition one and the same.

This year marks the 60th anniversary for the JHP, which was founded by Abraham Maslow and Anthony Sutich in 1961. As a cornerstone of our humanistic community, JHP is at the forefront of scholarship that addresses these new global transformations, chronic disparities, and timeless existential meanings. The JHP is a trusted hub of humanistic scholarship, interdisciplinarity, critical exploration, and transformative research that advances social change. Thanks to the dedication and vision of Shawn Rubin, outgoing Editor-in-Chief, the journal has never been in a better position. Under his stewardship, the journal flourished and grew tremendously; it is now published six instead of four times per year, with higher page budgets than ever before and an impact factor that has increased over the years, demonstrating humanistic psychology’s growth as an influential force in the field of professional psychology. In addition to enhancing and expanding the journal’s standard operations, Shawn also curated groundbreaking special content on some of the most pressing issues of our time—including social justice, heroism, psychedelics, extreme states, diagnostic alternatives, and, most recently, Donald Trump. It is a true honor to be following in Shawn’s footsteps as Editor. I am particularly honored to be serving as the journal’s first female editor. Moving forward, I will make every effort to continue the tremendous legacy that Shawn and those before him—including Kirk Schneider, Thomas Greening, Anthony Sutich, and Abraham Maslow—have left behind. The impact and promise of this legacy was manifest in the recent candidacy of Kirk Schneider, a past JHP Editor-in-Chief, for President of the American Psychological Association. As Kirk has put it, the JHP has advanced “humanistic psychology’s vision as the eventual vision of psychology, a seedling or portent of what our field could be.”

In 2020, the JHP continued to address the present historical moment with special content, including the first of two Special Issues on COVID-19 (guest edited by Mark Yang, Louis Hoffman, and Zenobia Morrill), a special issue on Addressing the Elephant in the Room: Stories of Ethical Activism in the Age of Trump (guest edited by Harper West, Steve Wruble, and Bandy Lee), and Turbulent Times in the Trump Era: Inside and Outside the Consulting Room (guest edited by Dennis Debiak). Our second Special Issue on COVID-19 will be published later this year. As we move into the future, the JHP will continue to address the most urgent issues in psychology from the perspective and values of our humanistic traditions. This is a time when the field of psychology has seen increasing attempts to narrow and homogenize the perspectives, methods, and approaches of the discipline. It is our job to continue advancing openness of thought, epistemological heterogeneity, methodological diversity, and person-centered practices that are tailored toward the uniqueness of every individual human being. In order to strengthen these directions, the journal features work from scholars at various career stages, from renowned and seasoned experts to talented graduate students and emerging scholars whose work is critical to actualizing better futures.

The journal will also remain dedicated to methodological pluralism by supporting research that uses qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, with particular emphasis on phenomenological, narrative, intuitive, discursive, hermeneutic, and constructivist approaches to research and scholarly inquiry. The JHP is also dedicated to producing interdisciplinary content that meaningfully engages with psychological topics in other scholarly arenas, including the broader social sciences, philosophy, critical theory, cultural theory, and literary studies.

The JHP is deeply dedicated to social justice. Members of the Editorial Board have recently published a statement expressing our solidarity with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement against structural racism. The statement emphasizes our intent to publish content on racial and social justice in an ongoing way. We intend to highlight research and scholarship that directly address issues related to diversity and transformative practice, with particular focus on racial justice, queer studies, disability studies, migration studies, feminist scholarship, among other grassroots movements. We also plan to publish scholarship that addresses epistemic justice and the nascent field of madness studies. The JHP will continue to honor the particularity of specific and local movements within the broader universality of the humanistic tradition. Our new Cultural Equity Editor positions are one step toward ensuring that we continue authentically striving to meet these goals.

The present historical moment is characterized by a paradigm crisis in psychiatry and clinical psychology in which researchers are questioning the basic definitions of mental disorder and psychopathology. The present is thus a critical time for humanistic psychologists to disseminate and expand our ways of understanding diverse human experiences in terms of broader personal, interpersonal, sociocultural, and existential meanings. The JHP welcomes submissions related to rethinking mental health, including submissions on the philosophy of psychiatry, diagnostic alternatives, depathologizing approaches, madness studies, and the recovery movement. We are committed to publishing work that addresses the lived experience of mental health challenges (expertise by experience) and the unique role of peer specialists in mental health work. Our recent Special Issue on Extreme States, guest edited by Michael Cornwall, is one example of this commitment. We have also recruited two Senior Expert-by-Experience Editors to enhance and oversee this focus of the journal.

On that note, I would like to welcome our new senior editors:

Senior Psychotherapy Editor Pratyusha Tummala-Narra

Senior Expert-by-Experience Editors Ronald Bassman and Claire Chang

Senior Cultural Equity Editor Theopia Jackson

Cultural Equity Editor Sonasha Braxton

Senior International Editor Louis Hoffman

Senior Associate Editor Kirk Schneider

Last but certainly not least: Senior Consulting Editor Shawn Rubin

We are also fortunate to welcome the following distinguished scholars and thinkers as new Editorial Board Members:

Alexandra Adame, Gina Belton, Andrew Bland, Anthony Bossis, Fanny Brewster, Vanessa Brown, David Cain, Michael Cornwall, Zeno Franco, Nisha Gupta, Shannon Chávez-Korell, Roxanne Christensen, Benjamin Cooley Hall, Bojun Hu, Meba Alphonse Kanda, Justin Michael Karter, Betz King, Zenobia Morrill, Wade Nobles (Ifágbemì Sàngódáre, Nana Kwaku Berko I, Bejana, Onebunne), Bradley Olson, Nadika Paranamana, Anthony Pavlo, Elizabeth Pienkos, Niveen Rizkalla, Robert Romanyshyn, Judy Roth, Drake Spaeth, Mary Watkins, and Oksana Yakushko.

As always, we are grateful for the expertise and contributions of our continuing board members (who are not listed here but appear on the masthead). Their continuing service is truly invaluable.

At the center of the JHP is our readership. Thank you for your dedication to our humanistic vision and community. It is an honor to continue this journey together. You are the heart and soul of this journal, and your perspectives matter. Ideas and feedback are welcome anytime at kamensjhp@gmail.com

I hope that you enjoy this 60th-anniversary issue, which starts out with “The Humanistic Revolution in Psychology: Its Inaugural Vision,” a unique article by Eugene DeRobertis that presents a textual analysis of the first issue of JHP. Also featured in this issue are articles that reflect the diversity of contemporary humanistic scholarship, including:

“Existential–Humanistic Therapy and Disaster Response: Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic” by Louis Hoffman

“Posttraumatic Growth Experiences of Syrian Refugees After War” by Hatice Irem Ozteke Kozan and colleagues

“The Narrative Effects of Shamanic Mythology in Palliative Care” by Alfonso Santarpia and colleagues

“Negative Reflections about Positive Psychology” by Oksana Yakushko and Eva Blodgett

“The Solving Problems in Everyday Living Model: Toward a Demedicalized, Education-Based Approach to ‘Mental Health’” by Tomi Gomory and colleagues

This issue is just the beginning of the very meaningful content that we have planned for 2021.

Here’s to a new year in which we (re)discover health and the many ways of being with others.

In service,

Sarah Kamens, PhD